Opower has vaulted itself onto public markets by analyzing energy usage for utility companies and providing charts and other bits from data to ratepayers. Opower has an ambitious master plan, and it involves decreasing energy usage at scale.
For that to happen, Opower needs a seriously sophisticated approach. It goes beyond data science. Deena Rosen, Opower’s vice president of user experience, believes the company is onto something by focusing on what she describes as behavioral design. It’s sort of like how advertisements can motivate us to buy things — but for a more noble, potentially world-saving purpose.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1618354,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"big-data,business,","session":"C"}']Whatever Opower is doing, it seems to be a good idea. The company has signed up more than 95 utilities, according to a recent statement. VentureBeat’s Dylan Tweney and I learned about the company and its uses of behavioral design in our latest episode of What to Think.
Plus, we also tell you what to think about:
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